Are there video games that, at least outwardly, seem like they were designed for one demographic, that find a strong fanbase in a completely different one?

In my neck of the woods this weekend is 'Bronycon', a convention named for the vocal active male (Bro) fans of a Hasbro toy based cartoon, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic (Bro+Pony=Brony). The show airs on the Hub network, which is branded as a network for kids cartoons and tv shows. Its only a few years old, but specifically created for ages 2-14, as Disney and Nickelodeon were going for older tweens. Other shows on the Hub lineup are Pound Puppies, Littlest Pet Shop, Transformers Prime, Family Game Night, and Teenage Fairytale Dropout.

So, MLP:FIM was created to sell toys to young girls, and so intended to be entertaining for young girls, but also with their parents in mind. That childless single men would become strong supporters is interesting. Certainly cartoons can have broad family appeal, like Looney Tunes or Shrek, and some designed for kids, like Jonny Quest, can find adult audiences. Novels too can find unexpected audiences, usually an older one. Or sometimes items are packaged as if intended for one audience, but always intended for a wider one - such as many Young Adult fiction works like Hunger Games attracting an older audience.

So, are there video games like this?

Is Call of Duty, an adult game with many younger players, such an example? Or adults playing Pokemon, or Animal Crossing or even Mario games this? How about Minecraft, or even adults playing Angry Birds? Would a game with a Buffy or Lara Croft and a strong male fanbase qualify?

Or, heaven forbid, are video games still so strongly associated with kids that the whole hobby is this?

Pokemon is definitely one example, it was always geared towards a younger audience but ended up becoming more popular among adults then anticipated, same with Yu-Gi-Oh.

Games like Tomb Raider also have a pretty strong male fanbase.

The Transformers films(and the games) are surprisingly popular among the female demographic, almost half the audience for the most recent film was females 18-34.

I think the whole "video games are for kids" mentality is rapidly disappearing, now you generally only hear that from the most extreme anti-social crowds.

I wouldn't call COD an example as that's not a game series kids should be playing. Most of the audience for that game is older, but inevitably there's going to some kid whose parents don't care about what their kid is exposed to and will think nothing of getting them M-rated titles(or taking them to R-rated movies, i've lost count of many times i've seen young kids at films inappropriate for them), there's plenty of other M-rated titles kids are playing that they should not be, COD you just hear about more since it's one of the most popular M-rated franchises.

I wouldn't call older people "creepy" just because they like MLP, that's a pretty narrow-minded thing to say.

Creator Lauren Faust said she intended to make a show that parents could watch with their kids and it seems she succeeded pretty well. I'm not a fan of the show personally, but I sure as hell won't judge anyone else who likes it.

The Transformers Cybertron trilogy(War for Cybertron, Fall of Cybertron, Rise of the Dark Spark) are not based on the films(though they do share the same voice actors for the Transformers, and the first two movies had their own licensed games). The G.I. Joe films had more of a divide, with 68% of the audience for Retaliation being male.

I used to play Pokemon quite games a bit, but I don't have as much time for them anymore, still watch the show though, and it has a very sizeable female audience.

I don't know if there's really a consistent them per se in regards to games attracting different then expected demographics

[QUOTE=scotland17]The Pokémon thing is probably pretty close in attracting an adult crowd. I think I recall a cartoon of kids playing Pokémon openly, teens denying they played it, and then college students openly playing it again.[/QUOTE]I remember the comic too. I think it depends on location; my friend lives in Brooklyn and can find a bunch of random people with Street Pass and Pokemon at any moment whereas here in Northeast PA it's still considered a "kid thing" and not a lot of people are open about playing it. (I play it, anyway.)[QUOTE=scotland17]Do you think the adult appeal of Pokémon was baked into the games, like Shrek tried to be funny for adults too? Or did the source Pokémon cartoons already have such an adult fanbase? Any Pokémon players or fans out there? I don't recall a thread about that franchise, maybe some players can explain the appeal.[/QUOTE]You got me there, I can't explain the appeal at all. They aren't really throwing in jokes and references for the adult crowd like other things, nor are people really playing it for the story (cause there really isn't one). The only things I can really think of are that it appeals to completionists who absolutely wanna catch em all (not that you can without friends or another copy of the game) or that, with the 700 or so running around at this point, you have favorites and wanna see what you can do with them.

The spinoffs are a completely different story too (I know people play Mystery Dungeon mostly for the story). The cartoon is also another story, that's pretty specifically aimed at kids.

[QUOTE=Vexer]I wouldn't call older people "creepy" just because they like MLP, that's a pretty narrow-minded thing to say.

Creator Lauren Faust said she intended to make a show that parents could watch with their kids and it seems she succeeded pretty well. I'm not a fan of the show personally, but I sure as hell won't judge anyone else who likes it.[/QUOTE]I've seen an influx of creeps, autistic people and sex offenders in the brony community ever since it got big. I think I have every right to call them creepy.

Anyway, as long as they don't so attached that it becomes creepy, I'm fine with them.

[QUOTE=pacguy19]Bronies are creepy, and I've never seen anything like it. To me, games like Pokemon or Mario are for all ages and games like Tomb Raider are for both genders. Call of Duty might qualify, I don't know.

Bronies are a rare case though and I hope there's never another thing like them.[/QUOTE]

I like My Little Pony. I honestly find the animation good, and the writing is really good, too.

[QUOTE=pacguy19]I've seen an influx of creeps, autistic people and sex offenders in the brony community ever since it got big. I think I have every right to call them creepy.[/QUOTE]

haha, what were you doing there? (I'm not disagreeing, just making an observation)

That reminds me from back in the day. Did anyone ever wonder why the cops were in the same show as Pee Wee Herman? That's quite the coincidence.

I think I was a year or two older for Pokeman and TMNT so I never quite saw the appeal. Although, now, if there were a brand new Bugs Bunny movie, I'd be all over it.

I have noticed that a ton of kids like Master Chief from Halo. I can see the appeal. Other than it being an FPS, it's not that bad and for most part is no worse than Raiders of the Lost Ark. I think that was even PG when it was released. So, if we ever have kids, I'd introduce them to Halo when they're 11-12 or so. Online would be out. I wouldn't see anything wrong with doing the co-op with them or multiplayer.